Chris Rock and Steven Spielberg are teaming up for a biopic on the life of American icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
According to Variety, Chris Rock will direct and produce the film, Steven Spielberg will fill the role of executive producer. Universal Pictures supports the film and will pull from the King: A Life biography created by Jonathan Eig. The book is considered to be the “definitive biography” of the civil rights icon, bringing FBI information and interviews to create a “courageous but emotionally troubled individual who demanded peaceful protest while grappling with his own frailties and a government that hunted him.”
Will Smith says that he nearly turned down the iconic role of Agent J in 1997’s Men in Black. Speaking with Kevin Hart for a recent episode of Hart to Heart, the actor explained that Steven Spielberg, who executive produced the film, sent for a helicopter to pick Smith up and bring him to him, so they could discuss the decision. Smith began by recalling not wanting to do another alien film following 1996’s Independence Day. His former manager, James Lassiter, was adamant about Men in Black, however.
“In the heyday, the 10 movies I made at the top of my career, [James] was choosing the films,” Smith said. “He just had an eye. I didn’t want to make Pursuit of Happyness. I didn’t want to make ‘Ali.’ And [James] picked Men in Black. I kind of understood Men in Black a little bit but I didn’t want to make ‘Men in Black.’ That was the next year after Independence Day. So I didn’t want to make two alien movies back to back.”
Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones aiming their weapons towards the sky in a scene from the film ‘Men In Black’, 1997. (Photo by Columbia Pictures/Getty Images)
“Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter for me to talk to me,” Smith continued. “I was in New York. It landed at his house. And, like, he had me at hello. And it was the first time I ever had lemonade with carbonated water. You can’t say no to that.” “He said the coldest shit,” Smith added. “He said, ‘Tell me why you don’t want to make my movie…’ And he was the producer. And he put the ellipsis at the end, it was the dot, dot, dot. If he had continued, he would have said, ‘Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made E.T.‘”
Smith ended up taking the role in Men In Black and it went on to become one of the most iconic in a career of iconic performances. Smith and his co-star, Tommy Lee Jones, later reprised their roles to star in two more sequels in the franchise.
Steven Spielberg says that he believes the U.S. government is hiding information about UFOs. The legendary director addressed the topic during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, earlier this week. Spielberg has released multiple films that deal with the concept of aliens, including 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
“I think the secrecy that is shrouding all of these sightings and the lack of transparency until the Freedom of Information Act compels certain materials to be released publicly, I think that there is something going on that simply needs extraordinary due diligence,” Spielberg argued, before adding, “I think what has been coming out recently is fascinating — just absolutely fascinating. I would like to hear more about it, I don’t know what they are.” The director added that he doesn’t believe Earth to be the only planet with life on it. “I don’t believe we are alone in the universe,” he said. “I think it is mathematically impossible that we are the only intelligence species in the cosmos.”
Steven Spielberg At Cannes Film Festival
CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 15: Steven Spielberg appears on stage during the Opening Ceremony of the 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 15, 2013 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
While Spielberg added that he’s not confident aliens have visited Earth, he added: “There is something going on that is not being disclosed to us.” As for what would happen if aliens did visit, Spielberg said that he doesn’t feel they’d be violent. “I believe if any extraterrestrial civilization has journeyed all the way here, it’s because of curiosity and science and it’s not about aggression,” he said.
Regarding his popular films about aliens, Spielberg also confirmed that he won’t ever be making a sequel to E.T. “No, never,” he said about the idea. In addition to Close Encounters and E.T., Spielberg also directed the 2005 film War of the Worlds, which follows an alien invasion of Earth. His most recent film, The Fabelmans, is a coming-of-age story loosely based on Spielberg’s own adolescence. It’s up for Best Picture at the 95th Academy Awards.
Steven Spielberg says that he doesn’t consider Seth Rogen’s films to be “stoner movies,” since he’s never been high before. Spielberg made the comment on the red carpet for the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala.
“Well, having never been stoned, I don’t see them as stoner movies,” he told Variety reporter Marc Malkin, before referencing Superbad. “I see them as movies about a police officer giving solid, sound advice to an impressionable person.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 19: Director Steven Spielberg attends the European Premiere of ‘Ready Player One’ at Vue West End on March 19, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Dave J Hogan/Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
Malkin then asked for Spielberg to do live commentary on Rogen’s films, to which Rogen said, “One day.”
Back in 2018, Rogen appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he revealed that Spielberg isn’t a “big fan” of weed. Despite this, that didn’t stop Rogen from engaging in front of him.
“I just kept smoking it in Steven Spielberg’s face as I saw, like, the look on his face where he’s just like, ‘I’m never working with this motherfucker, ever,’” Rogen said at the time.
Rogen ended up going on to star in Spielberg’s newest film, The Fabelmans. For the movie, Rogen plays Bennie, a character heavily inspired by Spielberg’s uncle.
“[He’d be like] ‘My uncle did that all the time, do that, and let’s get another one,’ and it was like these new memories would form, and you’d capture them on film in real-time,” Rogen recalled. “Yeah, I’ll never have another experience like this.”
The Fabelmans hit theaters on November 11, 2022. The movie is based on Spielberg’s own adolescence and his introduction to the art of filmmaking. It also stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, and Gabriel LaBelle.
Check out Steven Spielberg’s comments on never having been stoned below.
What’s Steven Spielberg’s favorite Seth Rogen stoner movie?
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John Williams‘ musical score for Jaws might be one of the most familiar pieces of film music in the history of cinema. And while it’s brilliant in its simplicity, it’s hard to deny that it is indeed a relatively simple tune. Essentially, it’s just two chords played back to back at varying tempos. And while it’s hard to imagine a visitor to Amity Island getting swallowed up by a great white shark without that ditty playing in the background, the truth is that Jaws director Steven Spielberg thought the tune was a joke when Williams first presented it to him.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Spielberg was interviewed in a previously released making-of DVD feature in which he admitted that he was momentarily taken aback by the theme. “I expected to hear something kind of weird and melodic, something tonal, but eerie; something of another world, almost like outer space under the water,” Spielberg explained. “And what he played me instead, with two fingers on the lower keys, was ‘dun dun, dun dun, dun dun.’ And at first, I began to laugh. He had a great sense of humor, and I thought he was putting me on.”
When Williams, who celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this week, made it clear that he was as serious as a shark attack with his composition, Spielberg gave it another listen—this time without giggling. “It suddenly seemed right,” Spielberg said. “And John found the signature for the entire movie.”
That streamlined, and definitely-not-a-joke, score earned Williams his second of five Oscars for Best Score. “I think the score was responsible for half of the success of that movie,” Spielberg said.
